Page 105 - Fast Car (March 2020)
P. 105
FORD ESCORT MK2
While Ashley’s kept the basic look of the
bulkhead lip, he didn’t like the pronounced
design, so it’s been smoothed. The heater
bubble was made smaller and cleaner at
the same time. Ashley hated the idea of the HT leads running
over the rocker cover, as is traditional with
Crossflow engines. A DTA ignition pack takes
that little issue away.
Ashley didn’t like the look of the factory
thermostat housing, so Pro Alloy made a
new one, along with a new, flatter radiator
with a centralised inlet. The now-straight
top hose uses Wiggins clamps to offset
any issues from the engine moving when
under acceleration.
AT Power supplied a set of their
45mm throttle bodies to fuel the fruity
Crossflow, but had to make a custom inlet
manifold to suit the engine. THE BIG-BORE
CROSSFLOW
“Although I’d previously had the Pinto
built for it, it’s a Harrier at the end of the
day, so really the only right engine to
A single wiper sits bang in the middle of the build for this car was a Crossflow,” says
reworked scuttle panel. Smoothed engine bays have
Ashley on his decision to stick with the
been done before on Escorts, but Ashley went the extra pushrod. Only this wasn’t going to be
mile – insisting the heater bubble be made smaller and your typical 1700 build.
the hole moved further down out of sight, right next to “We went to Connaught Engines to
the now-smooth bulkhead lip. The bonnet too, has lost talk about a lairy build. I really wanted
its distinctive crossbrace – a single one doing the job. a 200bhp engine, but Connaught’s Phil
Moving further back, the C-pillar vents, which were Price explained that although it was
rotten anyway, have been smoothed-over, and the roof possible, the power delivery would be
gutters now ending further up the pillar. The rear panel all or nothing, and it would be horrible to
has been smoothed, too, along with the bootlid – these drive on the road.
touches going back to Ashley’s image manipulation “So we went for an 1870 engine
attempts as a 13-year-old (see boxout, left).
instead, which meant I had to find them
a decent AX block...”
STAYING DRY
Being race engine builders, they
don’t give too much away about the
With the myriad of body touches inally complete, the spec. But it’s an all-steel bottom end,
unpainted shell was delivered back to Ashley and Jon with AT Power 45mm throttle bodies, a
for a dry build. monster manifold made up by Edwards
“We decided to do a full dry build, as I didn’t want to Motorsport and DTA management, along
add or be left with any redundant holes after the shell
with one of their ignition packs — plug
was painted, right down to itting every single nut and
leads running over the rocker cover is
bolt, to make sure the inal car would be 100-percent one of my pet hates!”
how I wanted it. These evenings were pretty intense at And peak power? Although Ashley
this point,” he admits. “Me and Dad did fall out and ABOVE: Ashley asked Pro Alloy for the largest tank went with the ‘lower power’ engine, it still
disagree on a few things – one of us would have to walk they could fit in the reworked boot well – 60 litres
made 190bhp on the dyno...
Defining car culture 103
